Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Beautiful (11/07/05)
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TITLE: Crown of Splendor | Previous Challenge Entry
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11/12/05 -
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ADD TO MY FAVORITES
One of the most important was a first place trophy I had won in a beauty contest held each summer at a nearby park. I was so proud of that. It was a visible reminder that someone, somewhere had once voted that I was beautiful and talented.
I did the same hula hoop routine for three years in a row in that competition. The part I selectively choose to ignore in this memory is the first two years I was consistently voted “runner up”, but I was determined to win that crown! I finally won the third year I signed up. (Also, the last year I was eligible due to age limits) In addition to the trophy, I received a flower, sash, and a crown made from cardboard and foil. In my secret doubts, I always wondered if the park officials hadn’t simply taken pity on the poor runner-up who showed up faithfully each year with her hula hoop in tow and her quest to be queen. I admit there was a distinct possibility the judges, who all knew me well, may have tipped the scales in my favor. Let’s put it this way – it’s a good thing there were no ballads to recount and the only Chad in question was the pot-bellied boy my mother babysat who accompanied us to the park everyday.
My mother decided it was time to move from the home we had lived in for almost twenty years. I went over to help and, in process, to reclaim my trophies. I was immediately curious when they weren’t in the back bedroom where I’d left them some six months earlier. I went outside to ask mom where she had put them, thinking maybe she had packed them already to take along. I was stunned to hear her response that she had thrown them away, assuming I didn’t want them anymore. As I staggered in disbelief, I began to rummage through the pile of garage off the back porch. Mom said they were gone, she had thrown them away weeks earlier and the trash truck had already come and gone. What?!!? This was a complete catastrophe! How could my mother throw away my years of accomplishments and not even ask me? The unspoken reality is I felt she had thrown away my worth – part of me; at least, the gold-plated part of me. I literally could not speak and I burned with anger. At a complete loss for how to respond, I thought this proved something must be wrong with her. Didn’t my accomplishments mean anything to her? Didn’t I mean anything to her? I carried this view around for several years. I told my closest friends and they agreed – yes, something must be wrong with her!
I am struck now by three insights in how God and His wisdom have changed my perspective. First, my mom literally was the “someone who trashed my trophies”. Who says God does not have a sense of humor! Second, how foolishly I attached my sense of beauty to a plastic woman on a pedestal, which in turn upheld mine. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. (Matthew 6:21 NIV) Third, my mother didn’t love me less; she loved me more because she knew that my beauty was not found in a box of old trophies. A mother knows best! Thank you, Lord, for my mother.
I spent more time than I care to say grumbling and feeling I had lost something significant. I now know instead what I found. I’ve traded my foil crown for a crown of splendor. How amazing it is to be adorned in His garland of grace.
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